Tidings of Comfort and Joy
by BlaiddDrwg30
Summary: The Doctor takes Rose and Rebecca to a mall on Earth so they can enjoy the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. But what happens when they expectantly run into one of the Doctor's oldest enemies?


"I just have to say," Rebecca said with a smile, "that without a doubt Christmas is absolutely my most favorite time of the year!"

"We know," Rose laughed. "You've only told us about a hundred times already today."

The Doctor winked at her. "And it's not even lunch time yet!"

"You guys can laugh at me all you want," she said, linking her arms through Rose's and the Doctors'. "You'll never dull my Christmas spirit."

"Other than the fact that it was technically August where we came from," the Doctor said under his breath.

"Oh leave her alone," chided Rose. "I don't mind her enthusiasm. Not really. I think it's cute," she said as she nudged Rebecca's shoulder.

"This is one of the best things about time travel," the Doctor said looking rather wistful. "It's always Christmas somewhere! Christmas s my favorite time of the year too, you know. Weeeell, next to Frisaltofus of course. But few things can really compare to Frisaltofus."

The girls stared at him.

He looked momentarily befuddled. "Frisaltofus? It's a Venusian holiday. Involves singing and fruit and ferrets. But you wouldn't have heard of it before, I expect."

Rebecca giggled and Rose snorted and rolled her eyes at him. "Not likely, Doctor."

They had traveled to December 22nd, although Rebecca was unsure which year exactly they were in. They were at a mall somewhere in the Midwest, as far as she could tell. It was hard to say for certain however though, since the Doctor hadn't specifically told them. They had been in the Tardis, trying to decide where to go next, when Rose had mentioned that as of late she had had Christmas on her mind. Rebecca had thought that it was sweet, but the Doctor has thought it had more to do with them recently having been running for their lives as they were being chased by an abominable snowman on the ice planet Tartooga. But either way, the Doctor had agreed to make a brief sojourn back to Earth and they had ended up here, at a small mall somewhere in America.

Rebecca wasn't exactly why they were here though. Why a mall of all places? When she voiced her question to the Doctor he just smiled and spun around with his arms spread wide.

"Just look at this place!" he said happily. "Have you ever seen anything so festive?"

Looking around it was easy to agree with him. It truly WAS beautiful. A multitude of twinkling lights hung from the rafters and doorways of every store. Thousands of snowflakes hung and sparkled from the ceiling. Wreaths with read and gold baubles and bows were everywhere. And a steady thrum of Christmas carols played from the speakers. Hordes of shoppers walked passed them in and out of the various stores, tightly wrapped up in their bright scarves and jackets.

Rebecca and the Doctor grinned at each other. "This is perfect," she said.

"Oooh, look at that!" Rose exclaimed as she ran on ahead.

The Doctor and Rebecca followed her until they reached the center of the mall and they saw what had caught her eye.

It was the huge center display where Santa Claus sat and children took pictures with him and confided to him what they wanted most for Christmas. Rebecca had been to loads of malls in her lifetime, but she could see at once why this display had captured her attention. It was superbly impressive. And huge! Santa's chair was flanked by two tall nutcrackers, each one had to be at least six feet. And behind the chair, towering all the way u until is almost reached the ceiling, was a massive and glittering winter display full of reindeer, snowmen, elves, candy canes, and a wide assortment of other Christmas delights. Fake snow fell from the display, which enhanced it's wintry appeal.

"This is bloody brilliant!" Rose said as she clapped her hands together in delight.

The Doctor nodded, joining in with their enthusiasm until something caught his eye and made the smile fall away from his face. It was a part of the display, and was a huge green dome with a curious looking protrusion from the center of it, near the top. If he didn't know any better, he would say that it looked exactly like a...

"C'mon Doctor," Rebecca said, pulling at his arm. "Rose found a chip place and we're going to get some lunch."

He gave the display one last look before shrugging and following both girls to the food court.

Meanwhile the protrusion from the green cylinder emitted a soft glow. Its time had come...

After a quick lunch both girls wanted to walk around the mall a bit more before heading back to the Tardis. Walking through the mall with her two favorite people in the world, soaking up all the Christmas spirit around them, Rebecca didn't know how it could get any better than this.

Without warning the ground began to shake beneath them, knocking several people down, including Rose. Rebecca grabbed the nearby railing and clung to it for dear life. The Doctor leaned down and helped up Rose.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. "But what the hell is going on?"

"I think I might have an idea," the Doctor said as he took off running towards the center of the mall, dodging through crowds of panicked people who were racing in the opposite direction in an effort to get out as quickly as possible.

The rumbling and shaking seemed to come the most strongly from the display where Santa had been sitting. It was deserted by the time they got there. What they saw stopped them up short.

The green cylinder part of the Christmas display had split right down the middle and the two halves were slowly pulling away.

"I knew something wasn't right with that," the Doctor hissed. "I knew it looked just like..."

"Just like what Doctor?" Rose asked as she grabbed the Doctor's arm to hold herself steady.

He didn't have to say any more. At that exact moment an object rose out of the opening in the cylinder. A object that looked quite similar to the cylinder, only smaller. A menacing metallic being that glared at them from it's eyestalk with unspeakable hatred.

** EXTERMINATE!** It screamed in a raspy, grating voice. **EXTERMINATE!**

"It's a Dalek!" Rose yelled above the rumblings.

"What the hells a Dalek!?" Rebecca yelled back, confusedly.

"Something bad, something very very bad!" The Doctor said as he grabbed both of their hands and started running with them in the other direction.

"There's just one of them, though!" Rebecca yelled as they ran. "Surely the three of us can overpower it?"

The Doctor let out a bark of laughter. "There's no overpowering a Dalek. Not unarmed like this. Maybe not even armed."

She threw a glance over her shoulder. "It doesn't look so scary," she said.

** YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS, YOU MUST BE DESTROYED!**

The space where they had been standing was suddenly lit up with a blast from the creatures firing weapon.

With a yelp Rebecca covered her mouth with her hand in shock and kept running.

They rounded a bend and the Doctor pulled them both into a hallway where the bathrooms were housed. They crouched in the shadows, hearts beating rapidly, as the Dalek glided right past them, it's eyestalk constantly moving back and forth as it searched for them.

After a few moments of silence Rose gave a sigh of relief. "What are we going to do?" she asked. "We can't leave it here in the mall, what happens when it gets out?"

"At least all the other people seem to be gone, so there's that at least," Rebecca said. "But how do we get rid of the Dalek?"

The Doctor looked thoughtful. "If we can somehow trap it in some kind of electrical field, I can reverse the polarity within the field and cause it to overload." He looked at the girls. "If the Dalek is caught in the field quick enough, before it has time to redirect the energy, that should be enogugh to electrocute it!"

Rose nodded. "But how do we trap it?"

Rebecca smiled. "I have an idea."

About twenty minutes later, after Rose, Rebecca and the Doctor had carefully unwravelling yards and yards of Christmas lights from various stores, the Doctor had rigged up a web between two poles.

"Now all we have to do is get it to come this way without noticing the traps before it hits it," he said.

"So basically, we have to piss it off pretty badly?" Rose asked with a grin.

"Precisely." the Doctor said.

"Okay," Rebecca said. "I'll handle this." She ran off in the opposite direction.

"Wait!" Rose called out. "Are you sure? Do you want me to come with?"

Rebecc looked over her shoulder at her. "Nope! I'll be fine. I'm pretty much an expert at pissing things off!"

The Doctor chuckled. "She's got a point."

"Just make sure you're ready when I get back!" she called out as she kept going.

Meanwhile, the Dalek was in a bad state. It had been in stasis for such a long time, it couldn't even remember what it was doing there; what it's mission was. All it could rememeber was blind hatred. All that emotion needed a target of somekind.

Suddenly a human female darted in front of it, waving her arms and throwing pieces of trash at it.

Perfect. Target acquired. With a throaty yell of triumph, the Dalek screamed; **EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!**

_Why in the hell did I volunteer for this role? _Rebecca thought as she raced through the mall, determined to keep ahead of the murderous Dalek. _I always throw myself into these situations! Do I have a death wish or something?_

A trash can to the right of her exploded and debris flew everywhere as the Dalek missed her and hit it instead.

_Although,_ she thought with a smile, _This sort of fun does have it's strange appeal!_

She darted around a fountain in one section of an alcove, and the Dalek vaporized it, scattering bits of plaster and stone and water all over the place.

Finally she reached the section where the trap had been laid, the furious Dalek hot on her tail. Using the last of her energy to give herself one more burst of speed, she slid under the web of lights and heard Rose yell out "**NOW!" **as soon as the Dalek hit it behind her.

The Doctor had his screwdriver poised and aimed at the fuse box where the lights were all rigged up. He adjusted the frequency and reversed the polarity.

The Dalek lit up like, for lack of a better term, a Christmas stayed airborne and emitted a high pitched gurgling scream as it friend for a few moments, before falling to the ground with a heavy metallic thud.

"So do we have ANY idea what a Dalek was doing in a mall anyway?

The three of them were in the mall parking lot, leaning up against the Tardis as they watched the firemen and local police scramble around trying to figure out what had actually happened and why half the mall was destroyed.

The Doctor shrugged. "Weeell, we could makes guesses all day long but in the end, I guess we'll never know."

"This was a pretty fun Christmas adventure, if you think about it!" Rebecca said to Rose with a smile. "You know, minus the Dalek and the explosions and such."

"It is August, don't forget." Rose reminded her.

Rebecca just laughed. "But remember what the Doctor said about time travel! It's always Christmas somewhere!"

~*~The End and...  
_**MERRY CHRISTMAS!**_


End file.
